International Links for December, 2008
Myanmar official media Thursday urged all practitioners in the country to make efforts for the promotion of Myanmar traditional medicines through cooperation with the international community. The Congress of Traditional Medicine of the World Health Organization (WHO) was held in Beijing, China in the first weekend of November which Myanmar took part in.
The Myanmar delegation discussed matters on Myanmar traditional medicine including measures being taken for conducting research on treatment of six major diseases -- diabetes, hypertension, malaria, tuberculosis, diarrhea and dysentery through traditional medicine, according to the newspaper.
news.xinhuanet.com
Ethno-botanist Deepak Acharya has spent eight years in the Satpura mountains in Madhya Pradesh, parts of which lie cut off from civilization, driven by a single goal — documenting and salvaging India’s traditional herbal remedies before they are lost to the world.
www.sindhtoday.net
Most people believe that obesity results from eating too much, which is certainly true in most cases. But it fails to explain why some people gain weight even though they eat little and drink lots of water while others keep slim though they eat a big dinner every day.
“It is not simply the case that the more you eat, the more weight you gain,” says Dr Zhang Zhongyi, deputy director of the Acupuncture Department of Yueyang Western and Traditional Chinese Medicine Hospital. “Whether your stomach and spleen work well plays a much more important role.”
www.365tcm.com
DOES IT WORK? No clinical trials to back up long history of use. Dónal O'Mathúna investigates Dong quai and menstrual symptoms. DONG QUAI has been used for centuries in traditional Chinese medicine for a variety of gynecological problems, including relief of premenstrual syndrome (PMS).
www.irishtimes.com
chinesemedicineherbs.net
China's government has resorted to the age-old practices of traditional medicine to help millions of schoolchildren nationwide cope with a very modern problem: poor eyesight due to too much studying. Education officials, concerned about the deterioration, recently introduced a new series of exercises that focus on pressure points around the head, including the back of the neck and the ears, a technique used in traditional Chinese medicine. "It is a combination of massage and applying pressure to pressure points, a mixture of sport and medicine, all merged together," said Dr Shao, a medic at a Beijing primary school.
uk.reuters.com
FROM Chinese Medicine Journal:
Effects of tender point acupuncture on delayed onset muscle soreness (DOMS) – a pragmatic trial. Acupuncture is used to reduce inflammation and decrease pain in delayed onset muscle soreness (DOMS).
This study investigates the efficacy of acupuncture on the symptoms of DOMS. Methods: Thirty subjects were assigned randomly to there groups, namely the control, non-tender point and tender point groups. Measurement of pain with full elbow flexion was used as indices of efficacy. Measurements were taken before and after exercise, immediately after treatment and seven days after treatment. Results: Significant differences in visual analog scores for pain were found between the control group and tender point group immediately after treatment and three days after exercise (P<0.05, Dunnetts multiple test).
Conclusion: The results show that tender point acupuncture relieves muscle pain of DOMS.
www.cmjournal.org
The United States and China held the fifth Strategic Economic Dialogue (SED) at the Beijing Diaoyutai Guest House on December 4 and 5, 2008. As special representatives of President George W. Bush and President Hu Jintao, Treasury Secretary Henry M Paulson, Jr. and Vice Premier Wang Qishan served as co-chairmen of the SED.
Discussions at the fifth SED meeting led to a number of results in areas of strategic importance that strengthen and deepen the bilateral economic relationship, including:
Establishing a cooperation committee or working group on traditional Chinese medicine and identified the first round of cooperation projects. The alternatives to the use of endangered wildlife and derivative products in Traditional Chinese Medicine will be included on the agenda of this working group.
www.isria.info